WA Budget: Liberals move to wrest economic narrative from government
Shadow Treasurer Dean Nalder has set about wresting control of WA's economic narrative from the government ahead of Treasurer Ben Wyatt's second budget, raising concerns about increases in household costs and flagging opposition to the privatisation of Landgate.
He said the state budget, to be brought down by Treasurer Ben Wyatt at 2pm, would have to deal with record debt – which he conceded was a Barnett Government legacy – and explain why increases in fees and charges would outstrip inflation many times over.
Mr Nalder said he was concerned about the effect of an estimated cost of living increase of $734 over two budgets would have on the WA's economic recovery.
He said the hike in household charges, which would outstrip inflation by as much as six times, could reach into consumer discretionary spending and impact unemployment.
"We've seen a spike in March 2018, where we've now seen the highest unemployment on seasonally adjusted terms in 16 years," he said.
Mr Nalder said flat wage growth and inflation combined with softness in retail trade and building approvals also meant it was the wrong time for the government to hit the economy with increases in household fees and charges.
We're only going to increase the number of people at the bottom end who cannot meet their basic requirements and household charges.
Shadow Treasurer Dean Nalder
"If you are going to impact households like this, when their salaries aren't going up, you are actually getting into discretionary expenditure in what is already a depressed market," he said.
"You have to balance you budget, but to be hitting households at this time at this stage of the economy, potentially has a very adverse effect on the economic recovery of this state."
He said the number of people looking for work was the highest since records began, a total of 98,300 people.
The debt narrative
Mr Nalder accepted the former Liberal-National Government left the state with a massive debt burden which needed to be addressed.
But he said the McGowan Government had added to the debt problem with a $2.5 billion post-election blow-out.
State debt was on track to hit $40 billion under Labor, whereas the former government had a "Treasury verified plan to reduce debt to below $29 billion by 2020".
"They've been relying on some windfalls and they've had massive windfalls in the last couple of years with about $5.5 billion in capital coming from the federal government," Mr Nalder said.
"We did have a plan to take it [debt] well below $30 billion.
"They need to take ownership of the debt situation they inherited - we accept it - at 30 June at just under $32 billion."
Landgate up for auction
Mr Nalder said they would oppose the privatisation of Landgate unless the government could guarantee the integrity of the state's system of land title registration.
"You have to question why on earth an entity would pay $2 billion for something that's making a loss," he said.
"A lot of that is to do with the value of the data.
"The concern here is that the confidential and sensitive nature of this data which could potentially end up in the hands of a third party overseas player.
"We need to make sure we're very careful if we ever consider putting this in foreign hands or putting it out into the open market."